Canadian GM workers accept contract

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) - Canadian auto workers at GM have voted to accept the new contract that their union leadership negotiated last week, the union said Thursday.

The Canadian Auto Workers union said 73 percent of its GM members accepted the four-year deal. The union said about half of the 5,500 workers at GM Canada cast ballots.

The union leadership also reached an agreement with Ford last week and Chrysler this week. Ford workers voted in favor of their deal last weekend and Chrysler workers are set to vote on their tentative agreement this weekend.

GM and Chrysler matched the deal the union reached with Ford.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120928/DA1IF4HO2.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Current French negotiations

Exclusive: Renault seeks French labor deal to cut costs.

(Reuters) - French automaker Renault (RENA.PA) will ask unions for a new nationwide deal on pay and conditions to avert mass layoffs of the kind announced by troubled rival PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA), Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares told Reuters.

Faced with a sustained European auto-market slump, Renault is pressing workers to enter talks on aligning French wage and production costs with plants in Spain and the UK, Tavares said in an interview at the Paris auto show on Thursday.

"We're not asking for the moon," Tavares said. "We're talking about benchmarks."

Renault's No.2 executive said unions were mindful of the situation at Paris-based Peugeot, which plans to cut more than 10,000 jobs, close one assembly plant and shrink another.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/27/us-autoshow-paris-renault-wagedeal-idUSBRE88Q0UC20120927

Its the European auto-market slump which was the background to the issues with Peugeot some weeks back. At least some Renault vans are manufactured at the Vauxhall/GM plant here in Luton UK as are some similar Nissans - Renault Nissan is a joint venture..